


Everything's A Game

by writingramblr



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Drabble Fic, F/M, Post-Mockingjay, Spoilers for Mockingjay, inspired by Catching Fire movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-07 02:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingramblr/pseuds/writingramblr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johanna Mason knows love is a weakness. Love is weird. And there's no one left she loves.<br/>That's what she tells herself.<br/>When drowning herself in meaningless sex doesn't work, she figures out maybe it's time to quit lying to herself.<br/>An old friend calls her up and invites her to dinner, and she accepts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything's A Game

**Author's Note:**

> So I had this drabble thing up on tumblr and i realized, hey, i should put it here.  
> A post Mockingjay drabbleficlet that’s a bit of an angsty love story that develops over time between Johanna and Haymitch. I first saw and liked their chemistry in Catching Fire, (movie only) in the elevator intro.  
> I just thought maybe after Mockingjay it could grow into something more than that.
> 
> She always said she was going to go after Gale, but never followed through.  
> (This plot bunny attacked me while i was in the shower.)

Johanna can’t remember why she decided to move to and stay put in district 2.

She convinced herself it was merely so she could be near the poor boy who got the rotten end of the stick, when Katniss chose to make her fake love true.

Gale was a handsome man now, and even though Johanna had joked she’d have a good time with him, she’d never once picked up the phone and tried to call him.

When she does pick up the phone, it’s to hear her own words echoing through the lines, what she wanted to say, but spoken to her.

“Would you like to have dinner with me? If you’re ever in town.”

She found herself replying, and then packing a small bag, and boarding a train to District 12. The Victor’s village remained, a stark white cluster among the dark ashes settled on hard dirt.

Johanna had lost everything and everyone she ever loved.

She discovered that she could only ignore that feeling of being lost so long.

Recovering from Morphling was child’s play compared to it. Reliving her torture at the hand of Snow’s lackey’s was easy.

But this? This empty nagging feeling of doubt?

She was no fragile bird.

She was not the Girl on Fire.

Love was her enemy. A weakness.

She was happy to just have a few friends.

But it hurt to think about the ones she had lost.

Finnick Odair.

A true hero.

Someone the Capitol should have answered for in and of itself.

She’d asked him up once.

They’d had a nice dinner, a long chat, and just when she was ready to drop all pretense and the lights, Finnick stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm, something she would have shrugged off from anyone else, and said,

“Thank you for this lovely evening, but I’d better be getting home.”

A soft kiss on her cheek and he had been gone. She’d been left sitting by her fireplace, wondering what she’d done wrong.

Then she’d found out, a few weeks and months later. He was in love with someone, someone real, not of the Capitol’s design.

She’d hated him in that instant, if only for the flare of jealousy that he had birthed.

***

When she arrived in District 12, what remained was foreign and strange to her. She’d been there long ago, on her victory tour, but the city had gone through many changes since that, and before it’s obliteration.

She stepped up and knocked on the door, and tried to form a smile, when the door opens wide, and she sees him again for the first time since 13, the smile wavers.

“My favorite lumberjack, please, come in. You can leave your bag there if you want, or take it upstairs to the guest room. I’ve already started warming up dinner. What do you drink?”

 Johanna shrugged,

“Whatever you’re having. Something strong I hope.”

“Not exactly what you might think. I stopped drinking after I was forced to quit for a year in 13. So it’s just a bit of iced pear juice. Courtesy of Effie, the last time she stopped by from the capitol. Or rather, the Republic.”

Haymitch gave her a strange smile, and his voice was tinged with bitterness. He still remembered how much blood this recent war cost the survivors.

Even after they’ve finished the small meal and retired to the lounge area, Johanna can’t help wondering how much longer they’ll dance around things.

“Why did you invite me over?”

She finally speaks her mind, and Haymitch looked unfazed,

“Why do you think? I didn’t do it to play catch-up on events near the capitol. I did it because I wanted to spend some time with you.”

“But you hate me.”

Haymitch shook his head,

“I think we both know that’s not true. And you came here. So what does that say?”

“It says I’m not opposed to your company.”

Haymitch stood up, moving from across the room to directly next to her on her small couch.

“I never hated you. I disliked you, I distrusted you. But only because I was obsessed with the idea of pushing Katniss to her limits. She pulled through. Despite it all. But you were there too. You couldn’t go on the final mission, and I am forever thankful. If you had died, even in the effort to end the war, I would have hated myself so much more.”

Johanna was confused, and she couldn’t blame anything for it. All her wits and sense was with her.

“I don’t understand.”

“Ever since that night, in the capitol. I hadn’t seen you in a year, hadn’t been around other mentors and other victors in so long. But you, something about you always stuck out.”

“My big mouth?”

Haymitch smiled,

“Possibly. But mostly the way you could be fearless. Even in that arena. You pulled no punches. After that, you became an ally, in the war, in the district. All I could think was, oh god, I’ve found someone else I have to worry about. Because I _care_ about you. That used to mean I had a weakness. But now it means I want to be around you.”

Johanna Mason did not cry.

Johanna Mason was not a girly girl.

She was rather like her hometown icon. She was strong, resilient, and always stood tall.

But trees can bend, and trees can break. Branches fall off, and leaves never stay longer than a year.

Johanna had been scared out of her wits to hear what he was saying, because she knew it was true. He had no reason to lie to her.

“I don’t want to agree with you, but you’re right. I am fearless. Except when it comes to people I love. I fear for them. I don’t care if the capitol is different, if there’s no more President Snow. I’m always going to be afraid to _feel_.”

“You don’t have to be.”

Haymitch silenced any further protests or arguments with his lips on hers, and she had to admit the point was moot.

Mushyness aside, she decided she liked feeling again.

It made her feel as alive as being in the arena had.

The hunger games were over, but the game of life had just begun.


End file.
